NAACP and Coalition of More Than 100 Groups to Fight Segregation, Economic Injustice

WHO: NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous, NAACP North Carolina State Conference President Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II, in coalition with more than 100 organizations to promote educational equality, economic justice and equal protection under the law.

WHAT: On Saturday, February 12, NAACP activists and members of more than 100 organizations will march to the North Carolina State Legislature building for the fifth annual HKonJ (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) and People’s Assembly Mass Demonstration and March.

“Forward Together, Not One Step Back” will serve as the demonstration’s clarion call. Extreme right wing Local Tea Party-backed school board officials have advanced an agenda of “neighborhood schooling” that would drastically reduce school diversity and roll back years of progress. Like Arizona and immigration policy, Wake County is being watched by other states where efforts to restore segregationist educational systems are being considered. The demonstration will feature an agenda highlighting the need for educational equality, economic justice, jobs, worker’s rights and equal protection under the law.

“Our fight in Wake County against resegreation should be our fight throughout the nation,” stated Reverend Dr. Barber. “We will never back away from our struggle to ensure that every child has access to a high quality, constitutional, well-funded and diverse public education. We must also never retreat from our struggle for labor rights and a nation that keeps its commitment to the poor, two fundamental pillars of democracy.”

“Separate but equal was wrong then, and it’s wrong now,” stated Jealous. “We cannot in good moral conscience separate the struggle for diverse and superior education from the struggle for jobs and economic solutions. We’ve got to fight for our children, for good schools, for good jobs, and for a great future for all people in our nation.”

WHERE: Raleigh, North CarolinaMarchers will depart from Estey Hall (Wilmington & South St., Shaw University campus) and proceed to the North Carolina State Legislature building (16 W. Jones Street)

Founded in 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its members throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.